You probably remember a story from last year about a trio of brand new Tesla Roadsters that were found abandoned in a shipping container in China. Nearly a year later the three Roadsters are back in the United States with a new owner, and that new owner is someone you might least expect – Dan O’Dowd.
The story of the three Roadsters goes back over a decade. When the Roadsters were being built in California, a Chinese company bought at least four of them, presumably to tear them down and reverse engineer to produce their own electric sports car. However, that never happened, and the Roadsters were left unclaimed, sitting in their shipping containers at a port in China, until they were discovered last year.
The Roadsters were put up for auction, with bids reaching over $1 million. It has been several months since the last update from Gruber Motors, who was running the auction, and as it turns out they have been sold. They were all purchased as a bundle for US$800,000 (C$1,080,000), and the buyer was none other than Dan O’Dowd.
If you are unfamiliar, O’Dowd is the billionaire owner of Green Hills Software, who has very publicly tried to ban Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta from public streets as part of the Dawn Project, even going so far as spending millions of dollars to buy ad time during the Super Bowl, in two consecutive years.
The buyer and new owner was revealed by another Dan, Dan Markham of the popular YouTube channel What’s Inside?, who got an up close look at the three Roadsters in Seattle in the shop of Medlock & Sons, who maintains and repairs original Tesla Roadsters.
O’Dowd later took to Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, to announce the purchase, revealing he has named them Brandy, Thandy, and Nandy.
I'm pleased to announce that I bought the three "lost" @Tesla Roadsters that were found in a shipping container in China.
— Dan O'Dowd (@RealDanODowd) February 27, 2024
I named them Brandy, Thandy, and Nandy, to go with the original two, Candy & Mandy.
Thankfully, @elonmusk's defective self-driving software isn't installed. pic.twitter.com/slV3Q9NqsA
As you can see from the video, while the Roadsters essentially have zero miles on them, they are not in pristine condition as once thought, showing wear and tear like peeling paint , carbon fiber, and PPF, which you might expect after sitting inside a shipping container for over a decade.
Once Medlock & Sons completes their work to restore these Roadsters, they won’t be hitting the road. According to the shop owner, Carl Medlock, O’Dowd won’t be registering the vehicles, but instead placing them in a museum.
Interestingly enough, O’Dowd already has two other original Tesla Roadsters that he does drive, which according to his post on X above, are named Candy and Mandy.
You can watch the full video below.
